I know it might not be keeping with the Season, but I’ve been asked by a correspondent for some suggestions of poetry from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on Our Lord’s Passion. I thought I’d share my response with visitors to the Ink Desk. Here ’tis:

 

Regarding your request, here’s the link to an article of mine on seventeenth century poets that you might find helpful:

 

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/12/richard-crashaw-and-the-magnificent-seven.html

 

As for specific poems relating to the Passion from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, here are some suggestions:

 

Robert Southwell – Marie Magdalen’s Complaint at Christ’s Death

William Alabaster – Upon the Ensignes of Christ’s Crucifying

John Donne – Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward

Robert Herrick – Good Friday: Rex Tragicus, or Christ Going to His Cross

Francis Quarles – On Our Saviour’s Passion

George Herbert – The Agonie

– Love

Richard Crashaw – Charitas Nimia, or The Dear Bargain

– Christ Crucified

Abraham Cowley – Christ’s Passion